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Road Trip: Visiting Ulysse Nardin (Part 1)
Two Swiss locations of Ulysse Nardin were the last stops of our watchmaking “Road Trip”. Last but not least, and quite special.
There isn’t probably the thing that makes me mad more than all sorts of folk sayings. Although I usually find them superstitious and with no relation to reality, one perfectly fits as a description of our last visit of the Swiss watchmaking “Road Trip” we took last year. The saying is “don’t judge the book by its cover” and goes perfectly with my feelings after the day spent with Ulysse Nardin. I was never a fan of the brand, I don’t particularly like their style and design – and if I were to base my evaluation of the company only on those facts, it would be one and very big mistake.
UN (short for Ulysse Nardin) welcomed us in La Chaux-de-Fonds and Le Locle. There, plus in one other very unique place, we could see how one of the more “exotic” timepieces in today’s watch-world come to life. So sit back and follow our report, with good tone of pictures included.
La Chaux-de-Fonds
Each and every step of the Swiss “Road Trip” guided us to a place well known among the fans of mechanical watchmaking. You all heard about Sainte-Croix, Plan-Les-Ouates or Schaffhausen, and probably know this locations just as well as La Chaux-de-Fonds. This small town in Neuchatel region (just under 38.000 residents) is a home for number of watch brands, including the TAG Heuer manufacture, neighboured by Dior and Louis Vuitton watch departments. Both famous car company founder Louis Chevrolet and architect Le Corbousier (Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris) were born here but – getting back to this watch report theme – it’s where some of the Ulysse Nardin parts and watches come to life. It’s also important to state at this point, that UN uses outsourced cases, hands, straps and bracelets as well as some other, smaller components – everything else is produced entirely in-house.
The manufacture building, located a few hundred meters from the LVMH group neighbours, houses almost every stage of the production process, from parts creation, R&D department all the way to final watchmaking section, the soul of every true manufacture.
Impressive machine park of UN occupies almost entire ground floor of the building, presenting everything from highly advanced CNC machines…
… to hand-operated, bigger and smaller devices used in pre-assembly and finishing work of every possible kind.
Research and Development department – a fundamental thing for every serious company this days – is where all starts. It is here that new watches are born, with design, prototypes, computer analyses etc. without which it would be virtually impossible to make any new product. Today’s R&D is of course almost a 100% computers based thing, but I bet A.L. Breguet would gladly use them too, if he only could. R&D is the brain of modern watch manufacturing, indicating and predetermining almost every step of the creation process.
La Chaux-de-Fonds is of course also a home for watchmakers. Qualified watchmakers work at their benches on every mechanical UN timepiece, except the High Complication (we’ll get to them later on) but including the newest UN-118 calibre with silicon DIAMonSIL escapement (made for UN by Sigatec from Sion).
What really surprised us was how young yet already experienced some of the staff was. Ulysse Nardin stands by a plan of long term relationships with its personnel, and significant number of female employees is something we got used to. They are supposed to be more patient and precise, which in watchmaking is a set of priceless skill.
On the way to Le Locle
Although La Chaux-de-Fonds is an important part of UN’s strategy, the brand is mainly associated with different location – located just 8km away village of Le Locle. Approximately three time smaller than La Chaux-de-Fonds, Le Locle might be known to you from the dials of some UN pieces, but also other watch companies based here – Tissot, Certina, Vulcain and Mido. But before we reached Le Locle, one unexpected stop awaited – Donze Cadrans.
Bought some time ago by Ulysse Nardin, the Donze Cadrans is a true manufacture specialized in hand-made enamel dials in number of styles. The place is as special as you can imagine, and therefore we will present it in separate text (Part 2 of the report). For now, let’s return to Le Locle.
Le Locle
The Le Locle facility of Ulysse Nardin is actually the brand’s headquarters, with old and new structures integrated smartly into one complex. Allow us to skip not-so-interesting administration part (marketing, management, sales, after-sale, customers care etc.) and the case design department (which we didn’t see) and focus on the most interesting things. Ulysse Nardin chose Le Locle for it’s more high-end, artistic side with departments for restoration and service, hand-painted dials, and the Haute Horlogerie section with testing and control. And there is also a nice little museum inside.
So, let’s proceed from the high note – the Haute Horlogerie (the High Watchmaking). Ulysse Nardin’s collection presents a significant number of highly and even more highly complicated timepieces, including the tourbillion, minute repeater and the perpetual calendar. They are all made in a large, spacious and bright room with number of watchmakers benches equipped with all the necessary tools for highly-trained and experienced watchmakers.
Each one assembles one piece (from A to Z), and their variety and quality make for a serious head spin. Just take a look…
The same level accommodates the control room with well known rotating machines to verify watches accuracy and quality check.
Not far away from there you’ll find a service and restoration department. Ulysse Nardin offers to fix any watch made by the company (provided in the repairable condition) including old marine chronometers with chain transmission.
Restoration process is possible both thanks to the modern technologies and an impressive stock of old parts and components.
Small, air-conditioned room at the ground floor of the building provides a space for true artists in their craft – the ladies responsible for creation of hand-painted dials. Miniature paintings require long hours of steering into microscope and extraordinary precision to operate brushes as tiny as a human hair (some even thinner than that). Some of the dials made here go to the regular collection (of course limited models), some are made to order for special customer’s taste.
Ulysse Nardin dates back to the year 1846 – it has therefore a nice 168 years of history and tradition. With such background having a proper museum is a must – and we will find one in the Le Locle headquarters (where it all started for UN). Located in finally finished, wooden attic with sloping roof, the museum houses many different UN artifacts, including pocket watches, chronometers, clocks and marine-inspired exhibits (hence the anchor in UN’s logo and it marine connotations). Every serious watch manufacture with true heritage should have a place like that, to show it in real light instead of just talking about it.
As I mentioned in the very beginning of this report, our visit in Ulysse Nardin proved the saying “don’t judge the book by its cover” to be very right. My opinion on the brand, based only on some brief, hands-on experiences with some pieces and a test we made of the Maxi Marine Chronometer (the pre-in-house version) was highly underrated. Not considering the design side (which, as we know, is a meter of individual taste) Ulysse Nardin is very highly skilled and capable manufacture in true sense of this word. Introduction of the UN-118 calibre presented all new possibilities, not to forget it’s quite innovative construction. As a base it was already used in the new chronograph movement (UN -150), and I’m sure another additions are only a meter of time. On the other hand you have the likes of astronomical Trilogy Set, the Moonstruck, minute repeaters with automatons, various tourbillions, wrist-worn-music-box in the Stranger watch or the legendary Ludwig Oechslin’s creation – the Freak. All of them prove huge potential of the brand and constant realization of the vision that dearly missing Rolf W. Schnyder brought to the company. When Mr. Schnyder resurrected Ulysse Nardin back in 1983 (my birthday btw.) his goal was to bypass the standards, think out-of-the-box and create only unique things. 30 years later it is still the case for UN, and even though you’ll find quite standard, classic timepieces in the present collection, the one-of-a-kind DNA was and is the way to success. The DNA that’s supported by very high quality and craftsmanship that we saw with our own eyes (and tried to present you in this story). UN’s independence is no less important, when you can grow and develop in your own way and pace, not with the supervision from above. Our trip to La Chaux-de-Fonds and Le Locle gave us whole new perspective and knowledge, so we left it smiling with joy.
Part 2 of the Ullyse Nardin visit report – the Donze Cadrans – coming soon.
